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Summary

Henry Starling continues to prepare for his flight back to the 29th century to get more technology, which he plans to use to revolutionize the 20th centurycomputer age further than he already has with his technology from the Aeon. Luckily for the crew of USS Voyager the news footage of the ship flying through the skies has been dismissed as fraudulent by most people, although the military are taking it seriously and therefore the crew cannot attempt another low-altitude flight.

The crew of Voyager finds out that it was Starling's trip to the 29th century that caused the temporal explosion. Rain Robinson, LieutenantTuvok, and Lt. jgTom Paris distract Starling by having Robinson call Starling for help. She implores him to save her, pleading with him that "people are shooting at me!"

Suspicious but convinced, Starling drives to her location accompanied by The Doctor, who is wearing his new mobile emitter (provided by Starling). Tuvok and Paris transmit Starling's coordinates to CommanderChakotay and Lt. jg B'Elanna Torres, who are flying towards them in a shuttlecraft. They beam Starling to Voyager, but the shuttle loses attitude control and crashes in the Arizona desert.

Dunbar creates a diversion using a temporal transponder and lures Paris and Robinson to chase him, believing that he has the timeship. Just before Dunbar runs Paris and Robinson's car over with his truck, Chakotay and Torres (having been rescued from Arizona by Tuvok and The Doctor) destroy the truck with a blast from the repaired shuttle. Torres manages to fix the transporters and beams Paris on board to return to Voyager. Starling, however, successfully launches the timeship from the Chronowerx building.

Voyager's weapons are still off-line from their jump to the 20th century, so they cannot disable the Aeon. EnsignHarry Kim gets the photon torpedoes back on-line and can lock onto targets, but doesn't have firing control for them just yet. He informs Janeway that the phasers are still off-line. Just as the Aeon is about to fly into a temporal rift to the 29th century, Janeway manually fires a photon torpedo, destroying the Aeon.

After the Aeon's destruction, an alternate Aeon emerges from the rift with an alternate Captain Braxton, who has no memory of past events. He detects Voyager in the 20th century and takes the ship back to the 24th century to their previous coordinates in the Delta Quadrant. He cannot transport Voyager to Earth in the 24th century since doing so would have violated the Temporal Prime Directive.

Afterward, the Voyager's crew hold a celebration in the mess hall, for both saving the future and for The Doctor, who with his mobile emitter, now has complete freedom from the confines of sickbay.

"Captain's log, stardate 50312.5. We are again in the Delta Quadrant, at the exact time and place we first encountered the timeship. I've resumed a course for Earth and I've ordered the crew to the mess hall for a toast."

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Memorable Quotes

"Agent Tuvok, what's up?"
"Breakfast is 'up'."

- Rain Robinson and Tuvok

"Will you please pass me a burrito?"

- Tuvok

"They've got lasers! A black man and some bald guy!"

- One of the farmers, about Tuvok and The Doctor

"If my history is accurate, Southern California in the late twentieth century had no shortage of psychotherapists, competent and otherwise. I suggest you find one. Now... return me to Voyager."

"Talk about a motley crew. We have The Doctor – a guy with the worst, worst taste in clothing I've ever seen. Tuvok – what a freak-a-saurus! Has the guy ever cracked a smile?"
"Not that I can recall."
"And you, Tom Paris – hmm, sexy, in a Howdy Doody sort of way, pretty goofy, although sometimes I think you're the smartest man I've ever met."

- Rain Robinson and Tom Paris

"God in Heaven help us."
"Divine intervention is unlikely."

- Porter and The Doctor, before The Doctor stuns the two militiamen

"Doctor, how –"
"It's a long story, commander. Suffice it to say, I'm making a house call."

- Chakotay and The Doctor, as the latter rescues the former while nowhere near one of Voyager's holoemitters

"Doctor, get down there."
"How exactly do I get to torpedo tube 1?"

- Chakotay and The Doctor

"Fire!"
(The Aeon's computer beeps)
"Uh oh!"

- Chakotay and Starling, as the Aeon is destroyed by Janeway just before it enters the temporal rift

"Tuvok, has anyone ever told you you're a real freak-a-saurus?"

- Tom Paris

Background Information

Story and Script

The "Future's End" story arc originally included not only a second part but also a third and, at one point, a fourth. Supervising producer Brannon Braga explained, "Actually it started out as a four-part arc on Earth in 1996. The studio had some problems with that. They felt that it was too dangerous to attempt. The studio is not a firm believer [even] in two-parters. So we ended up reducing it to three parts, then two. I think it was a good idea, because it really made it a very taut and packed story line." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 109) On the other hand, Braga also stated, "Part of me wishes we had still done the four-parter, because we had Tuvok and Paris get trapped in a convenience store while it was being ambushed by gang members." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 84)

Moments after escaping from Starling and Dunbar in this episode, The Doctor approaches Rain Robinson and smells a tree behind her. This plot point was devised by actor Robert Picardo, taking inspiration from his own childhood. "I added that," he related. "Because I remember when I was a very young child, we took home movies of all the kids together feeding the ducks and all that. And all the other children were smelling the flowers and I'm just busy smelling a leaf. You know what I mean? I'm smelling something that's like a dead piece of branch, because I didn't distinguish between smelling a part of the plant and another part. I was imitating the behavior, but smelling the wrong thing. That kind of stuck in my head." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #14, p. 17)

The subplot involving the capture of Chakotay and Torres by an anti-government group originally featured much more in the episode's plot than it ultimately does. "They had to condense it," director Cliff Bole remarked. "Basically, those were the Freemen, the guys in Montana. That could be a whole script! We had to just nail it for a vignette." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #15)

Some consideration went into the possibility of having Rain Robinson aboard Voyager, but this idea was vetoed by executive producer Rick Berman. Joe Menosky remembered, "Rick hated the idea. He just said, 'Forget it.' So we didn't do it." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 109)

Brannon Braga cited this episode's vehicular activities as bigger action set pieces than had been usual for Star Trek. Referring to the writing team of Star Trek: Voyager, he stated, "We conceived of big action sequences [....] And we crafted big action set pieces like the chase between a Mack truck, a shuttlecraft, and a Volkswagen van." (Star Trek: Voyager Companion)

Cast and Characters

In this episode, Henry Starling fits The Doctor with a mobile autonomous holographic emitter, allowing The Doctor to freely move about, outside of Voyager's sickbay and holodecks, and even outside of the ship itself. Robert Picardo noted, "I'm mobile." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 91) Picardo had, during the second season of Star Trek: Voyager, suggested that his character of The Doctor go on a planetary mission. Shortly after completing work on that season, Picardo remarked, "I would be in some altered state, I would assume, because they would have to portabilize him." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 97) Furthermore, Picardo had also suggested – during that same season – that The Doctor should be modified for away mission usage in pieces, so that (for a while), his head alone would be sent on such missions. (Delta Quadrant, pp. 150-151) Despite these suggestions – and much in the same ways as Rene Auberjonois reacted to Odo finding his people (in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) – Picardo initially felt that giving The Doctor a mobile emitter would be a huge mistake and would ruin the character, before the actor eventually realized that it was the right decision. "I remember thinking it was a bad idea to give him mobility outside of sickbay," Picardo stated. "I thought that part of the audience's interest in the character was because of the limitations the character had and the challenges he had to face in trying to make the best of his limitations. But Brannon Braga was really right in that idea of giving me the mobile emitter. It opened up whole new storytelling vistas and I was the first to tell him that I was wrong – that the mobile emitter was a great idea." (Star Trek: Voyager Companion) Picardo also recalled, "I was concerned about the Portable Holographic Emitter because I didn't want to mess with a winning combination. The audience seemed to embrace the Doctor's character during the show's first seasons, and so much of his character is based on the notion that he is severely limited and has to cope with limitations such as the fact that he can only exist in Sickbay or in the Holodeck, and that he's different to an organic being. So it seemed to me that if we took the risk of making him more like everyone else, we were damaging part of his uniqueness. Fortunately, that does not seem to have been the case [....] I am very happy that I was wrong about the Portable Emitter." (Star Trek Monthly issue 30, p. 17)

Robert Picardo regretted, however, that a joke he devised could not be included in this episode. "One of the great jokes I wanted to do this year but didn't get the chance to," a laughing Picardo explained, at the end of the third season, "was that the first time I appeared on the Bridge, to subconsciously relax in the captain's chair. You know, the Doctor comes on the Bridge, decides that the captain's chair is the best place to see what's going on, and sits there. And then, Captain Janeway sees what he's doing and says, 'What the hell's going on?' But it just didn't fit into that episode, because there was so much else going on." (Star Trek Monthly issue 30, p. 17)

In general, Robert Picardo enjoyed working on this episode's two-parter. When asked about favorite episodes at the 2001 Galaxy Ball charity Star Trek convention, Picardo commented, "'Future's End' was one I really enjoyed. Kate [Mulgrew] and I were really close – I look back at that with fond memories." (Star Trek Magazine issue 89, p. 32) A certain part of this installment that Picardo liked was when The Doctor smells the tree, a moment that Picardo referred to as "touching." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #14, p. 17)

Henry Starling actor Ed Begley, Jr. enjoyed working on this episode as well as the previous installment, and felt that this episode's existence was warranted. He enthused, "I loved that I got to battle the Voyager people for two episodes and that I put up a pretty good fight [....] It was a very good story, worth spreading over two shows." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #11) Begley also said, "I thought it was great that Starling got to challenge them for two episodes. I have to say that he did pretty well for a man who was really just a 20th Century Neanderthal!" (Star Trek Monthly issue 26, p. 60)

Although Ed Begley had been unfamiliar with Kate Mulgrew before guest-starring in this episode's duology, their work together here familiarized the actress to him. "I feel like I know her now," Begley said, having worked on this installment's two-parter. "She's wonderfully talented–a very bright and funny lady." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #11)

Alternatively, Ed Begley had appeared alongside Robert Picardo once before. "I had [...] worked with Bob Picardo on a St. Elsewhere episode," Begley explained. (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #11) Despite this connection, he only learned of it while performing here. "Bob told me I was actually very nice to him then," Begley laughed. "I don't remember it, but he certainly returned the favor to me on 'Future's End.'" (Star Trek Monthly issue 26, p. 60)

Director Cliff Bole inherited the guest stars for this episode from David Livingston (who directed the first half of this episode's two-parter). However, Bole was admittedly perplexed that Ed Begley, Jr. had been cast as Henry Starling. Bole explained, "The show had already been cast; I just picked it up when I came in to prep Part II. I like to be part of the initial casting on shows I direct. In this case, I would have had something to say about their choices. Ed was different, but Ed is Ed. I don't think he was the right man for the part. But he brought something different to the table, and it worked." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #15)

Actress Sarah Silverman found that, like her character of Rain Robinson in this installment, she herself became more familiar with the Voyager personnel as time passed. "In both cases, on the show and in real life," Silverman noted, "I got to know these people and what their lives were like and become a part of it." (Star Trek Monthly issue 25, p. 61)

Regular cast member Robert Duncan McNeill liked the nature of the romantic relationship that develops between his character of Tom Paris and Rain Robinson here. "That was a lot of fun," the actor enthused. "I got to have a romantic interest that was very innocent. It was a nice change. That's something [we'd] been talking about for two years, how to deal with Paris' interest in the ladies without making him look like a cad. They did a really nice job of giving me a love interest that was sincere and affectionate without recalling all my casual remarks about the Delaney sisters." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #11)

Production and Effects

Several scenes of this episode, as with the previous one, were shot on location. For this installment, the locations used were in Los Angeles and in the Mojave Desert. The chance to go on location was enjoyed by cast and crew alike, including Cliff Bole. (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #15, p. 34)

The square where The Doctor meets up with Paris, Tuvok and Rain Robinson is actually outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles. [2]

The scene set inside Henry Starling's car was filmed on a set. The production of that scene provided Sarah Silverman, who had often heard about the extreme level to which Ed. Begley, Jr. was an environmentalist, with an amusing anecdote about the actor. "I was so happy to be able to take home to my friends the quintessential Ed Begley moment," Silverman recalled. "We were sitting in the back of a car on set but in between takes. He took out his cellular phone, dialed a number, and I heard him go, 'Hi. It's Ed. Listen, could you go to the garage and unplug my car?' He has an electric car! I just sat there silently thinking, 'Now I can officially finish this job and have a great story to tell my friends!'" (Star Trek Monthly issue 25, p. 62)

This episode, in common with the previous installment, uses modified shots of the Transit Building in Los Angeles to depict Chronowerx headquarters. However, one of the shots in this episode was especially modified for a particular scene. Visual effects supervisor Ronald B. Moore recalled, "We had the spaceship that had to bust out of a building [....] We did the Transit Building, downtown L.A. It became the building and then we were able to manipulate it for the plane to fly out." (Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects, VOY Season 3 DVD special features) Moore did not have enough time to add dust and debris into this shot, a fact he ultimately regretted. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 98)

Before working on this episode (and the rest of Voyager's third season), CGI supplier Foundation Imaging had regularly worked on Babylon 5, although CGI Effects Director Ron Thornton thought the opportunities that Foundation was presented with on that series paled to the work provided to the company for this episode's adventurous two-parter. Thornton remarked, "We would never have had the opportunity on Babylon 5 to do shots like a truck exploding out near Palmdale, so it was very cool to do it on Voyager." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #16)

Continuity and Trivia

Before returning to the 24th century, Voyager leaves some technology behind, including Captain Janeway's combadge (in part 1), her tricorder (in part 1), and The Doctor's holographic combadge. Considering that everything was undone when Voyager destroyed the timeship, these may have been erased from existence on Earth as well. AdmiralKirk and his crew also left technology behind in the 20th century (a phaser and a communicator) in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Following its introduction here, The Doctor's mobile emitter would remain in place until the series' end. However, Robert Picardo initially doubted that the device would be reused. Following the production of this episode but still during the third season, he speculated, "I don't think we'll be able to repeat the method of how they got me off the ship." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #10)

The events of this episode represent the seventh time (aside from the series premiere) that the Voyager crew has a possibility of returning home (to their timeline).

These episodes present a different interpretation of temporal causality than "Time and Again". In both episodes, a terrible disaster occurs, someone returns to the past and ends up trying to prevent the same disaster. In the season one episode, when the disaster is averted, the characters lose their memories and everything is exactly as it was before the disaster. Here, the characters retain their memories and are still in the 20th century after Braxton's ship is destroyed.

The Doctor mentions having recently undergone a severe programming loss, and that he is still in the process of recovering his memory files, referencing events that take place in "The Swarm".

Starling's company is called "Chronowerx," yet the inside of the timeship bay is emblazoned with "Chronowerks".

Although this episode posits 29th century Federation technology as having been responsible for the microcomputer revolution of the 1990s, the fact that the episode ends with Janeway apparently bringing that timeline to an end makes the reasoning no longer applicable. Robert Picardo came up with another explanation for the technological revolution: "Bill Gates is the guy that plundered the other alien ship that crashed, since the one that Ed Begley Jr. plundered now never happened." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 110)

This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 5.8 million homes, and a 9% share. [3] Jeri Taylor once reckoned, "'Future's End, Part II' [...] is the highest I think we had all year." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 107) However, this episode was actually the second most watched episode of Star Trek: Voyager's third season (on first airing), topped by the third season premiere "Basics, Part II".

Cinefantastique rated this installment 3 and a half out of 4 stars, referring to the episode's duology as "A terrific two-parter that was great fun." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 97)

Brannon Braga was extremely pleased with the response to this episode. He noted, "'Future's End,' although it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, was a critical success, and a ratings success in a big way." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 84)

The fans of Star Trek: Voyager wholeheartedly embraced, or at least seemed to embrace, the concept of the mobile emitter and its use by The Doctor. At the end of the third season, Robert Picardo remarked, "The audience seem to enjoy seeing me on Away Missions and in other parts of the ship [....] I'm [...] very pleased that the audience hasn't written in hundreds of thousands of letters complaining that by using 29th Century technology in the 24th Century, we're clearly breaking the Temporal Prime Directive." (Star Trek Monthly issue 30, p. 17)

One aspect of fan reaction to this episode that Joe Menosky became aware of was disappointment that Rain Robinson does not get to beam aboard Voyager in the episode's two-parter. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 109) One such fan was writer Lou Anders, who had been secretly hoping that Robinson would somehow join the crew at the episode's end. (Star Trek Monthly issue 25, p. 62) In fact, Rick Berman ultimately regretted that the writing team of Star Trek: Voyager had not gone ahead with bringing Rain aboard the ship. Joe Menosky remembered, "I think in retrospect, after the whole thing was done, Rick said, 'Maybe it would have been OK if we would have had her.'" (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 109)

Both Brannon Braga and Jeri Taylor believed this episode's two-parter had an impact on subsequent installments of Star Trek: Voyager. Braga noted, "We began to hit our stride with 'Future's End'." (Star Trek Monthly issue 34, p. 13) Additionally, he observed, "I think, after the first two-parter we did together – which was a time travel show, I think, called 'Future's End' – it was just so much fun to paint on a bigger canvas." (Braving the Unknown: Season Three, VOY Season 3 DVD special features) He also said of the "Future's End" two-parter, "That was really, the turning point, when Voyager became a little bit more fun again. I think I speak for everyone here, in terms of the season. The show kind of started to rejuvenate, and we were doing much more what we wanted to do." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 109) In agreement, Jeri Taylor described this episode's two-parter as "the show that kind of began to swing us back to a more adventure-oriented sense of fun." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 84)

Straight after working on this episode, Sarah Silverman appeared on The Larry Sanders Show. "I actually did 'Future's End' and Larry Sanders back to back," she remarked, "which were unbelievably opposite experiences, although they were both a blast. Another character from Larry Sanders is on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Penny Johnson – and we were talking about [the preciseness required of the dialogue in Star Trek]." (Star Trek Monthly issue 25, p. 61)

Also after appearing in this episode, Sarah Silverman was surprised by the popularity of both Star Trek in general and this installment's two-parter in particular. "I'm shocked," she exclaimed, "because I can't believe how many people watch that show. I've never been recognized so often for one or two shows. I was walking out of this studio to my car, and there was some guy building sets, with his back to me, and I said, 'Excuse me, do you know what time it is?' He went, 'Rain Robinson! You're Rain Robinson! I recognized you from your voice.' There are a lot of Trekkies out there that you never know." (Star Trek Monthly issue 25, p. 62)

Following his work on this episode's two-parter, Ed Begley, Jr. considered returning to Star Trek. "Who knows? Maybe I'll do another Star Trek in the future," he speculated. "Considering how much I enjoyed 'Future's End,' I would certainly welcome the opportunity." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #11) This episode and the previous one constitute his only appearances on Star Trek, however.

Similarly, Sarah Silverman decided that, although she would welcome the opportunity to reprise her role of Rain Robinson if a credible means presented itself (an opportunity that, ultimately, never came to pass), she would be too scared to join the main cast if Rain became a member of Voyager's crew, as Silverman was generally very anxious about commitment. (Star Trek Monthly issue 25, p. 62)

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